Bootstrapped: A Startup's Journey [Why Blog?]

Steemit Original: Blog Series on the Journey of BitCash

So I've decided to begin a journey blog for BitCash, a startup I've been working on the last year. Why write this blog? Well first off we can get paid on this wonderful Steemit platform whether we succeed or not! But seriously, there are many reasons including:

1. Transparency
   The more transparent we are as a company the more comfortable people will be with the products/services we create. In fact with blockchain technology, we can put our entire accounting books on the blockchain! While some may believe that being too transparent may be disadvantageous, I believe the pros outweigh the cons.

2. Exposure
   For startups any exposure is good exposure. Gone are the days of buying expensive TV/radio ads. We live in a world of social media and the Internet. Companies these days blog, tweet and recruit Viners and Instagram influencers for product placement and smaller startups like us can compete cost-effectively. Furthermore we need to acquire customers, recruit talent and raise money so the more people know about us the better position we'll be in.

3. Communication
   People today discover news and events practically in real-time. Videos can go viral globally in days. We're so much more connected to each other. As a company we should embrace this paradigm. We plan to give updates to our community, stakeholders and potential supporters with social media, blogs, email and videos. We want to be immersed with all our supporters.

4. Community
   Our community is an extension of our company. With feedback we can improve our product, our outreach efforts and our customer service. Steemit allows us to reward members that have good ideas for our business so we can simply post a question and upvote good contributors!

5. Accountability
   The more public we are the more we are held accountable to make things happen. If we set a goal we want to hit it. We don't want to look bad. By stating our intentions publicly it gives us more incentive to make things happen.

6. Risks?
   We're a bootstrapping startup. At this stage we can take a lot more risks and experiment more than larger companies can. There are always some downsides to transparency. Competitors can follow everything we do. There will probably be misunderstandings if we communicate on the fly and have to change direction every so often. It also takes time and resources. However I think the positives far outweigh the negatives and we can always make adjustments as we move forward.

Blog Format
I plan to create weekly blog posts and have updates daily or every other day throughout the week. Please keep checking back as I update these posts. I also plan to write a few posts on timely startup topics every week.

Onwards!
And so begins a blog on the journey of BitCash. Whether this company makes it our not, hopefully the stories I share can help others succeed and be a resource to reflect on. The monetary rewards we get on this great Steemit platform would provide some solace if we don't make it, but we are determined to be successful and that would make this blog much more epic! Hope you find this helpful for your own startup or at least educational and hope you keep checking back! To get all you readers up to speed I wanted to give you all a brief background on me, the company and where we are today in my next post.

#startups, #bitshares, #bitcash, #steem